The present invention relates to technology for managing registered member information in a membership service site on the Internet, and relates more particularly to technology for centrally managing member information in a site that can be accessed from plural mediums.
Websites on the Internet, such as on-line stores, often require users to register as members so that users can be identified. Member registration is generally accomplished by registering a member ID and password enabling individual identification, an e-mail address, user name, and address for contacting the user, and credit card information for settling payment with a server, on the website.
Now, while a personal computer has conventionally been used to access the web server, recent widespread use of mobile telephones has resulted in an increase in users that use websites on the Internet from their mobile telephone.
Compared with personal computers, however, mobile telephones are limited in the size of the screen for displaying information, and in their operability for inputting text. As a result, a number of websites now provide both a web page having a display format suitable for personal computer displays and an input format presuming use of a keyboard and mouse, for example, and a web page having a display format suitable for the LCD (liquid crystal display) screen of a mobile telephone and an input format presuming use of operating keys.
There are, however, differences between the language system that can be interpreted by the browser function of a personal computer and the language system that can be interpreted by the browser function of a mobile telephone, and the server system for access by personal computers and the server system for access by mobile telephones are normally managed separately. This means that member management is carried out separately, and the same person is managed using separate member IDs on the web page provided by a server system for personal computers and the web page provided by a server system for mobile telephone access.
As a result, the user must go through the registration process on both web pages, and must manage plural member IDs. In addition, when the website is an on-line store, for example, the same person purchasing goods at a same store is treated as a different member when making a purchase after accessing the site with the personal computer and when making a purchase by accessing the site with a mobile telephone, creating such problems as making purchase history management more complicated.
Mobile telephones are also equipped with the smallest number of keys necessary for input, and inputting text is more difficult when compared with a personal computer. The standard input method used by web pages designed for access from a mobile telephone is therefore basically to display a menu and detect the selection made using the operating keys.
However, text input of the member ID, password, address, name, and other information is still required for member registration, and text input of the member ID and password is required for member verification each time the user accesses the site, even though the website presumes access from a mobile telephone. Member registration and verification procedures are therefore complicated and tedious.
An object of the present invention is therefore to provide technology for centrally managing member information in a membership system website that can receive access from plural types of devices.
A further object of the present invention is to provide technology for reducing the work involved in inputting text to a website.
To resolve the above problems, the present invention provides a member information registration system for registering member information in a member database, the member information registration system having a data registration means for accepting an individual identifier and verification code outputted from a first device, and registering the accepted individual identifier and verification code as member data in the member database; and a data updating means for accepting from a second device an individual identifier, verification code, and identification information specific to the second device, extracting from the member database member data matching both the accepted individual identifier and verification code, adding the identification information specific to the second device to the extracted member data, and updating the member database.
The member information registration system and the first and second devices can be connected by a computer network. In addition, a mobile telephone can be used as the second device.
The present invention also provides a member verification system for verifying members in a registered membership system service on a computer network, the member verification system having a member database storing member data correlating a member-specific identification code with identification information specific to a communication device used by the user, and a verification means for, when a verification code and identification information specific to a communication device are received from the communication device used by a user, determining whether member data matching both the received verification code and identification information specific to the communication device are present in the member database, and verifying as a member when the member data are present in the member database.